Improvement in hand-looms



UNITED STATES PATENT @Erica- STEPHEN O. MENDENHALL, OF RICHMOND, INDIANA.

IMPROVEMENT IN HAND-LOOMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 41,313, dated January 19, 1864.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that I, STEPHEN C. MENDEN- HALL, of Richmond, in the county of Wayne and State of Indiana', have invented a new and useful Mode of Operating the Battens of Hand-Looms; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawing, making part of this specification.

The drawing shows atop or birds eye view of the machine.

Like letters refer to like parts.

The nature of my improvement consists in arranging two shafts to operate at rightangles to each other, one driving the other by means of a pair of miter-wheels. One of the shafts is placed on the top of the loomframe back ofthe batten and parallel with it, with ily-wheels on each end of the shaft, which are connected by means of pitmen to the hatten. The other shaft passes along the side ofthe frame to the front of the loom, and on the front end it has a crank, each revolution of which moves the hatten back andA forth.

This improvement relates more particularly to hand-looms the frame and batten of which are like or similar in construction to those of the loom which was patented to me on the 4th day of January, 1859. In this loom (January 4, 1859) the batten is operated by a shaft, fly-wheels, and pitmen; but the operator is compelled to stand bank of and out of reach of hisweaving in order to turn the crank, making it extremely inconvenient, and causing great loss of time in weaving and liability to catch the shuttle in the web and break it.

I will now proceed to describe my present improvement and its advantages over other modes of operating battens in hand-looms.

In the drawing marked Figure 1, B B B B is the top of an ordinary loom-frame with its necessary cross-pieces, legs, &c. A is the hatten or lay, which is hinged on each side to the lower part of the loom'frame in the ordinary manner. D is a shaft secured in the ordinary way on the top of the frame, with the fly-wheels o o attached to each end of it, and o o pitmen connecting the fly-wheels with the batten A. E is a shaft running parallel with the side of the loom-frame and secured to the same by means of boxes or supports, marked (s s,-) and W is a crank on the front end of shaft E. The two shafts I) and E are connected in their motion by miter-pinions H I-I.

Having described the different parts of my improvement, I will now describe its operamotion the crank W shall be in a horizontal or extended position, (from left to right,) so that the operator has only to press downward with his weight on the crank to make the hatten pass this point referred to with the least possible strain or labor to the operator. This is a point of especial importance to the weaver.

The great importance of operating the battens of hand-looms by the regular pitman or crank motion, instead of operating them forth and back by the direct application of the hand, is well-known to weavers, because the pitman or crank motion moves the hatten always to the same points in each revolution of the tlywvheels ;v but in operating the batten by hand all depends on the skill of the weaver to strike each Woof-thread with the same force; hence the great advantage of operating the batteri as described in my improvement over the old mode of applying the hand to the batten. And the advantage of having the operator stand in front of the loom to turn the crank and attend to the weaving, as shown in my drawing in this application, over that mode in which he (the weaver) is placed back of the loom to operate the crank, as in my patent of January 4, 1859, has already been fully explained.

Having now fully set forth and described the nature of my improvement, its construction, its operation, and advantages, what I purpose of placing the operatoriin front of the claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters loom.

Patent, is STEPHEN C. MENDENHALL.

The application to hand-looms of shaft: E, Attest: with its supports s s, crank W, and pinions JOHN FINLEY, H, or their equivalents, when the same are Jol-1N R. BROWNLEE, usid in combination with shaft D for the H. SCHULHOF, JR. 

